I paddled my first junior stage race at the age of 16.

Britain's Aviva Women's Tour has emerged as the pre-eminent stage race in the calendar.

South Africa hosts the world's most challenging mass participation mountain bike stage race, the Cape Epic.

Who votes for a stage race next year?

The Belfast rider currently holds fifth place overall in the Jelajah Malaysia stage race, which runs until Sunday.

It's all building into the Tour and that final run-in begins with the Critérium du Dauphiné stage race.

The four- stage race began with 19 cars on the 1.5-mile track.

Martin was in the lead group and was up against a who's who of the top stage race riders.

A 251km six- stage race across the Sahara desert with competitors carrying their own kit, it's nothing if not challenging.

However, if these patterns persist, it will be important to evaluate whether such experiences contribute to within- stage race mortality disparities.

In addition to rugby, Williams, along with other former Springbok greats, completed the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage race.

Billed as Ireland's first multi-day mountain bike stage race, the fund-raiser will take in more than 80km in four stages.

Sponsored largely by An Post, this is Ireland's only women's international stage race and it is now in its 26th year.

An experimental two-week training camp was followed by the biggest victory of Wiggins's road racing career, the Dauphiné Libéré stage race.

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said Froome's absence was a blow to the 2019 edition of cycling's biggest stage race.

Dan Martin showed superb form in Portugal on Thursday, taking a victory on what is only his second stage race of 2017.